Steams rises from the Kawasaki natural gas power station in Kawasaki city, Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo on August 25, 2011.
Japan’s Fukushima disaster, with the subsequent shutdown of most Japanese nuclear power plants, mean US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia will be profitable to 2020 – but maybe not beyond. Keep reading →
Brazilian government intends to boost installed #windpower generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020 #EnergyTransparency2012 Vestas
Estimates vary widely on its cost, but it’s thought the Three Gorges Dam is the most expensive hydroelectric project ever built.
Coal that’s being priced out of the US market by cheap natural gas is being burned instead in Europe, where it’s cheaper than natural gas with prices traditionally linked to oil.
The resulting pressure is beginning to break down those links, and the differential between natural gas prices in the US and Europe could diminish significantly before any US liquefied natural gas (LNG) can be exported. Keep reading →
Exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US will raise domestic natural gas prices little – and possibly not at all – because the international market won’t take enough LNG to make a difference.
That was the conclusion of three economists who separately studied international LNG prospects. They presented their results to the International Natural Gas Workshop sponsored by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington DC recently. Keep reading →
Policy proposals to solve environmental problems flow from a myriad of sources, particularly activist groups and legislators. But business schools are sharpening their focus on environmental economics, and they may be poised to emerge as much more vocal proponents for environmental solutions.
One such voice was raised in April, when a Northwestern University economist proposed an unusual – some would say radical – approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Keep reading →
Brazil is a country blessed by nature. Famous for its beaches, renowned for its beauties, the emerging global economic leader is also blessed by huge energy reserves, ranging from deep sea oil to huge rivers that drive hydroelectric production and some of the best wind resources in the world.
Countries have built wind energy as a complement to their existing power infrastructure, but in few places does the natural setting make wind so much “the perfect partner” for hydroelectric power as Brazil, the Global Wind Energy Council said in a report on regulatory frameworks for the country’s emerging wind industry. That is nature at work, with the wind cycle complementing Brazil’s rainy season by blowing strongest during the dry season. Keep reading →
Royal Dutch Shell plans to spend at least $1 billion a year exploiting China’s potentially vast resources of shale gas, the firm’s top China executive said, part of an aggressive strategy to expand in the world’s biggest energy market.Shell in March secured China’s first product sharing contract for shale gas, hoping that getting in early will allow it to be a big beneficiary from the sort of boom in shale that has transformed the U.S. energy market. Asked if the firm remained committed to a plan to invest $1 billion a year in China’s shale gas over the coming few years, Lim Haw Kuang, Shell’s top China executive, said in an interview: “Yes, yes and yes.”
It isn’t gold.
Weakening venture capital funding for one of the globe’s fastest-growing sectors isn’t a mystery for sector watchers, but with increasing adoption of disruptive monitoring technology, the market opportunity isn’t a matter of if, but when. Keep reading →
Mexico, one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States, has a big problem: Its production of crude is falling fast. In 2008, the country’s production peaked at 3.2 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last year, it didn’t even produce 3 million a day. The reason: aging oil fields and years of underinvestment. Industry experts say Mexico could revive production if it allowed more investment from international oil companies. But under current policy, EIA says Mexico will have to start importing oil by 2020. For the United States, the decline in Mexico’s oil industry means it will likely be buying more oil from Canada and Saudi Arabia, the No. 1 and No. 2 sources of U.S. oil exports. Mexico is now third.
